When alcohol is a trigger does the afib start when you drink and begin to feel high or as it leaves your body a few hours later or some other time? Or is it completely random?
When does the problem with alcohol sh... - Atrial Fibrillati...
When does the problem with alcohol show its face?
Written by
HiloHairy
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
40 Replies
•
BobDVolunteer
In my case even before I swallowed it. Just sipping was enough to set me off or in some cases biting into food which contained alcohol . This was many years before I actually had AF diagnosed and for nine or ten years I avoided it by carefully avoiding alcohol. Eventually my AF progressed and I didn't need the trigger of alcohol to get it. AF begets AF you see.
Best avoid any alcohol if there is the slightest suspicion it is one of your triggers.
What triggers A fIB is particular to the individual although alcohol seems to affect quite a few , but not all. As to when , if it caused Afib I would stay away from it altogether. Afib can increase the risk of stroke and now there is evidence it may enable cardiac arrest. Are you thinking you can have your Afib and booze too? Some do. Pam
I'm asking because while alcohol has never been a trigger for my AFib, last night after going to bed having taken a sleeping pill I woke up needing about three more hours of sleep but couldn't sleep. I knew it was too late to take any more sleeping medication so I poured myself a single shot of vodka with the idea that it would augment the sleeping medication. I know this is not a good idea but it did work. However, when I woke up this morning I felt unusually anxious and when I worked out at the gym an AFib event started as soon as I finished the aerobic part of my workout.
I'm trying to analyze what happened and to figure out if this small amount of alcohol is what caused the event.
Please don't warn me about drinking with drugs. We all know it can be a dangerous thing to do.
As always a post about alcohol precipitates many comments and points of view.
My view is that for me it is safer to remove any triggers including alcohol and for that reason I advise others to avoid it like the plague.
Having said that I do think that your particular episode was somewhat unusual, as to drink a measure of Vodka in the middle of the night after taking sleeping tablets earlier is somewhat unusual.
If you really want to try drinking again try it in small measure at a time when you have not taken anything else.
Pete
The thing is you get to post whatever you like, but you cannot tell people how to respond. If you do that you might as well talk to yourself. I was going to speak to your anxiety which for me is a huge trigger. What was that about? Caused by the alcohol ? Pam
in reply to HiloHairy
I didn’t mention in my earlier post that studies show that , with being overweight, even *moderate* alcohol use is correlated with progression from PAF to persistent or permanent AF, so be careful.
For me 2 drinks with dinner woke up with a fib. That was several years ago. I now drink mostly N A beer or 2 oz or less of wine maybe 2 times a week. No afib since.
Everyone is different Hilo.
Binge drinking is likely to kick off AF in anyone with afib IMO. Moderation is key for many (myself included) and a couple of beers are OK. However even one unit of alcohol will trigger afib for others. Triggers differ for everyone - when you know what they are for you avoid them.
If in doubt leave it out !
Best,
Paul
The only time I have an alcoholic drink these days is at Christmas when I stay with my daughter. I have one drink and all's well, so I have another, wait awhile and all is still well. If I dare have another, then AF or flutter kicks off and my heart races making me feel ill. When we were young Christmas meant ginger wine and also snowballs made with advocat etc. I still like snowballs at Christmas, but make sure that the lemonade I add has no artificial additives and it usually comes from the supermarket fridge.
Yes, alcohol is certainly a trigger for me but not immediately. I'm mostly too scared to have any.
Jean
For me was fine when drinking....it was when asleep and day after when I had most trouble.
Me too. No problem at the time and even for a few hours afterward. My heart usually went haywire in the early hours, as my body was performing ‘clean-up’.
so so true, lol its like SURPRISE! DID U ENJOY UR ALCOHOL LAST NIGHT??
Yes exactly lol. And then the little voice in my head starts crapping me out “are you TRYING to go back into AF? Cos that’s what it seems like you idiot!” 😁
check this out; when that happens to u in particular how much did u drink? and what did u drink? i have tested ways of kinda fooling the heart i.e. i drink and maybe two or three drinks later i stop drink water or electrolytes & eat some nuts fruit then drink again and honestly for me that has seemed to work actually!
Yes. Me too. If I stick to one drink, e.g. beer, drink slowly, big glass of water in between each beer I’m fine. Also, I need to stop several hours before bedtime. If I have a couple of beers and then even one glass of wine I’m in trouble. And don’t get me started on tequila. Bye bye Margaritas, my favourite cocktail. ☹️
same here but my body can actually tolerate more alcohol! but yeah tequila is probably my biggest trigger, i was going in AFIB early morning after a night of tequila shots they should make alcohol free margaritas or tequila lol
I get a bad reaction, stomach upset and hangover rather than afib event from even one shot of cheap tequila. A decent plata or a good reposado won't do that to me.
Do you get ill from tequila regardless of its quality level? I'm asking in part from not knowing if you're in the US or UK. From my infrequent visits to England I don't think I've ever seen a decent quality tequila.
same here the upset belly and dehydration plus hangover are triggers for me because i dont get AFIB after the tequila shots but hours after drinking and waking. Im in Mexico actually, and i have never tried a more expensive tequila im too chicken shit to fuck around with tequila, drink beers and jack daniels just one or two and im fine actually.
I noticed for me that binge drinking kicked mine off, but post ablation I barely drink now. Last week I was on a course for work and one of the guys said let’s grab a beer, as we had finished at 1. One beer turned into 5 pints of strong pale ale, and that night i went to bed feeling a tad light headed, but woke an hour later not in AF, but with my heart racing. I got up and was unable to sleep because I was just concentrating on my elevated HR, but eventually I drifted off and woke up the next day saying to myself “Never again”!!!
I think 5 pints of strong ale (certainly if you don`t drink much) is likely to cause probems DD. I know it`s tempting from time to time but not worth the risk of going in to afib.
Best,
Paul
Well, hindsight is a great gift. But one that we don’t always use. I didn’t drink with the intention of putting myself in a-fib though. For a brief moment I was living again, living how I wanted to live, not dictated by health or medication. Naturally I regretted this decision the following day, but for that evening it was good. So maybe it was worth it after all 🤷♂️
Sure DD. I totally agree with you about hindsight. I also understand you wanting to live how you want to live, and not being dictated to by health and med`s. I also feel that way.
I would love to go out my mates and have a guzzle like I used to do. I might be fine afterwards and totally get away with it.
I might not as well !
Enjoy your day mate.
Best,
Paul
Sleeping pill + alcohol + workout = serious stress on body = ideal conditions for an AF episode! Remember, having AF problems is a serious indication that we need to start caring for our bodies, not punishing them! Any one of these might have been fine, but evidently, not all three!
Unfortunately for me as soon as soon as I swallow one mouthful and it enters the bloodstream I am in AF. I am so symptomatic it's not worth it so I haven't had any alcohol for 6 years now.
Never considered alcohol as an issue. My cariologist (French) asked if I smoked but never inquired as to wether I drank. Which having lived in France for some time is not so surprising 
However I had pretty much given up drinking over the last few years as a desire to get fit (cycling bug) had bitten hard. So a few days in Cornwall and a few beers in the local whats the harm? Ended up in Turo hospital with a severe Afib. Thanks to every one who writes in I'm learning loads about this condition the anecdotal accounts are the stuff that never appears on the tin and so helpful.
For me, when I've drunk a lot and when I go to bed, sometimes the next day if I've not had a good sleep.
Lucky me, spirit doesn't seem to have any affect on my Afib. Although slight raise in hb a few hours later. As my normal hours is 40 going upto 50 is quite nice. Wine however causes fast hb after one sip. I think we are all different it's a bit trial and error.
En cas de besoin... je l'ecris mal, mais j'ai le FA dépuis 2010 et j'ai l'habitude de parler (mal aussi) de le FA en francais! Bon courage!
I have a varied history with AF and alcohol. At first it was just spirits which affected me and within 10 seconds of the first sip - so the whiskey went. Then the G&T’s had to go - the quinine in the tonic being the culprit there! Then, gradually everything else other than Champagne so I tend to stick to that or the English sparkling wine equivalent as we have several excellent vineyards such as Pebblebed a few miles away. Beer is THE worst - although I can tolerate other fermented drinks - beer I need to avoid as it affects me neurologically.
I hardly ever drink these days, high days and holidays and dilute white wine with sparkling water and avoid red wine, unless it is a really good quality wine and we are being entertained, then only half a glass. That may be partly an age thing as we are not able to metabolise alcohol as we age as well as younger people.
My conclusion is that it is not only the alcohol content per se, it is when it is taken, if you drink in the evenings and then go to bed it’s the worst.
How it was produced and the other ingredients so if it is made from organic produce, well produced without the addition of chemicals, it usually seems to have less impact on our bodies - ie - our body’s recognise it as food - they REALLY don’t like chemicals and react accordingly.
Vodka if a good, unadulterated brand is considered a ‘clean’ drink so on it’s own I would have thought not a likely candidate but the timing - yes - very likely. Alcohol, like caffeine, is a stimulant so it will have a stimulating affect after the initial 30-45 minutes of relaxation - that is why a caffeine nap is so affective - drink a coffe - nap for 25 minutes until the caffeine kicks in - a great pick me up as long as used very occasionally.
So you put what you want to in your body but I avoid any chemicals whenever I possibly can, avoid alcohol in the evenings or during the night if I want to sleep - general advice is last drink 3 hours prior to bedtime.
Alcohol makes your body a little dehydrated, so I'm guessing it's that. See the Cut-and-Paste info below:
Afib itself is not a disease - you can have a healthy heart and have Afib. There is an underlying problem and Afib is just a symptom of that problem. The problem is that nobody knows the underlying problem yet, so they are trying to fix the symptom from happening (with ablation or pills). If you are young enough and healthy enough you can keep your heart from Afibbing (without ablation or meds) by doing the following:
After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar was the culprit. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer. If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again. It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 2 or 3 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day.
Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. So you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. Good luck! - Rick Hyer
Always later never during. Always starts hours later after drinking or early the next day. Loss of water and minerals probably has something to do with It as well. It is now my ONLY trigger these days and I avoid it, well maybe a beer every now and then!
If I have 1 or 2 beers or wine in an evening, I make sure I drink the equivalent in water. Dehydration is a definite trigger for my afib and alcohol dehydrates.
Although I think all of us should avoid alcohol as much as possible, and for those of us on anti-coagulants, we should avoid it more than possible 😉, but do you think you might have been dehydrated? A shot of vodka alone wouldn't cause dehydration, but the sleeping pill, the shot of vodka, and the gym workout may have been the perfect storm. Dehydration is an AFib trigger for many people.
Being aware that sodium is my main trigger, I keep myself quite hydrated and everything except for the shot of vodka is normal behavior. I work out five mornings a week and quite often take some sleeping aid to stay asleep through the night.
I drink 2 units usually of hard liquor nearly every evening, very occasionally 3. Since I'm an American I have drinks chilled with ice. This doesn't appear to be a trigger for me.
From various posts on this thread it appears that when alcohol does trigger an event it can happen instantly or several hours later. This is good information to have.
I asked the EP directly about this when I saw him. He said that, yes, alcohol can provoke AF after drinking. It remains in the system for around 10 hours.It’s probably going to vary from individual to individual. He said that in my case the odd drink should be ok, but alcohol consumption should be kept very low. He didn’t give an exact amount, but I’ve interpreted this as meaning 3 drinks a week. Recently, I haven’t had any problem at all, but earlier during the year on some occasions I would get ectopics after a few mouthfuls. The temperature and type of the alcohol seems to make a difference- cold lagers seem to be the most troublesome. Last February, I drank 2 pints between about 8 and 10 pm
and woke up at about 4am with AF. I suspect, that this was the alcohol, but, of course, cannot be sure. In general alcohol and AF don’t go together. It’s probabaly best to experiment. What I have found works (it might be different for you):
1. No cold drinks.
2. Maximum 3 units (1.5 pints or one standard wine) at a sitting.
3. Maximum 8 units over 7 days.
4. Don’t drink on consecutive days.
5. If you get ectopics stop drinking immediately.
I went tee-total years ago because of AF. The effects weren't just immediate, i.e. hours or even days, it wasn't until I got it out of my system completely that I realised how much alcohol affected me. It took months before I felt "clean". I can't drink anything now, not even a sip, which to me shows how strong alcohol really is.
I was eventually diagnosed with permanent aflutter in 2006 tried every concoction of drugs but no meds worked only cardioversions . It happened again when I was on holiday after the first night and a Chinese meal (the kids choice not ours!). I didn't want it to spoil the holiday so carried on as normal and thought I may as well have a few pints because I was already in Aflutter and it may help me sleep . I then found to my total amazement that after one or two pints my heart went back to normal for at least 12hrs. I use to have a few extra pints to be on the safe side! The Aflutter was cured by ablation in 2009 but still get proxy Afib after an ablation in 2010. I use alcohol as one of my amoury for instance recently on holiday about to go out for our evening meal with friends and the afib again kicked in it always happens at the wrong time! ( no time to go for a high paced walk my usual remedy as pip flec leaves me spaced out). I suggested we have a couple of swift ones in the bar it did the trick. Over the years I have found my triggers are fatigue,binge drinking, shift work especially nights ,over exercising and worry. So now after many years treat Afib like other people treat a headache as soon as it reverts to normal ,normal life resumes life's to short to worry.
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
Its back again , does A,F, stand for Arnold Fchwarzenegger
::::::::( just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water , AF has reared its ugly head...
How long does it take for alcohol to trigger A-fib
I know that a-fib is triggered in a lot of people by alcohol. I am interested to know after how much
What does AF feel like, and when should you go to a hospital?
an unusual heart pattern that only lasts a few seconds. When we called the ambulance, she felt like...
When does an SVT become an SVT?
several times a week, but the episodes are currently short-lived. Occasionally the episodes feel...
When does your AF strike?
Does AF continue to progress silently when using drugs to successfully stop AF episodes?
Anyone had vision problems when taking flecanide?
NT-proBNP test shows over 1800 (2,255) Does it indicate heart failure?
Does anyone have AF and is suffering from thyroid problems as well?
